Josh had yet to see Hermes. That Pidgeot looked fast. Maybe one of these days, when they were traveling together, they could have an impromptu race. "Wow, sick ride you've got there!" he complimented his fellow Gym Leader. "Managed to procure Pidgeotite for them?" The Shiny Zeraora waved toward Lam and sounded a reverberating purr. What power in his voice alone!

He glanced at his Dynamax Band before turning his gaze back to Lam. "But that's not why we're here. You wanted to talk about the Power Spot in New Mauville, right? This is something I've... kept to myself. It's not as serious as Hideo Kino with Uxie, but... there's a serious problem with Dynamax."

Lam wasn't kidding. Josh had been searching high and low for Pidgeotite, Mega Evolution providing an incredible speed boost. There were aerial races on the schedule for 2024, and having an enormous, Mega Evolved bird would let him do well in the time trials. Though a little hard to control at speed, Pazuzu could zoom as he was. Mega Evolved... don't soil your pants, Josh!

The health concern was a really bad one. "So you know the Regi Ruins in New Mauville? Well, there's a Power Spot under there, too. All on their own, two Toxtricity Dynamaxed, putting me in a fight for my life. Once I had taken one of them down, my team... overwhelmed, Rime, my Alolan Ninetales, Dynamaxed on her own. I've never seen anything like it before. Max moves are no joke." If Lam took a close look under Josh's visor, he would be able to see scarring from the Max moves he and howard slayte had to endure. "When the battle was over, Rime's..." he sniffled. "Rime's heart burst. The Toxtricity, too. All three of them died."

"End of December," Josh reported, "not long after my family flew into Mauville and started living here. That's when the whole thing happened. It's dangerous down there, too. All kinds of Pokémon you'll find by ruins are out there. Runerigus and the like." Antsy to get going, Zaborg yanked on Saber's reins, the Manectric rearing and about-facing. The Shiny Zeraora was ready to zoom. Josh had other plans, though.

"So you're not the only ones..." he trailed off as Zaborg and Saber zipped away in a blur of yellow and white, the Zeraora letting go of Saber's reins long enough to strike an imaginary target with a ride-by flurry of PLASMA FISTS. "So you're saying some Power Spots are so strong that Pokémon will dynamax on their own? Without a Dynamax Band to regulate the Dynergy... this makes sense. If my suspicions are right, then..." He flashed his band toward Lam, gesturing toward the gym's main battle court. "I feel a lot less apprehensive now. Up for a quick spar?"

With his fears assuaged, Josh whistled for the Pokémon he planned on Dynamaxing during his battle with kyle lopez . It couldn't be Raikiri, for he had a Z-Move. Not Twilight, for she could Mega Evolve. Not Nitro, after having acquired the Stellar Tera Type. But which would it be? Lam's curiosity would be sated as the unmistakable screech of a Skarmory echoed from above them, the saddled bird coming in for a hot landing. "Lemme get her gear off her. Wouldn't want it snapping, after all. Saddles aren't cheap, you know!" he teased as he removed the riding gear from the bird. It looked a little strange seeing the metal Pokémon not wearing it. To Josh's Pokémon, the gear was like clothes to humans: almost an extension of their bodies in public.

"When I saw your Corviknight, I thought Bladestorm would be a good match for it. Not because the match is even, but because since they're both so tough, we'll get some good data on what a Dynamax clash would look like. These two could go at one another for hours and never faint." A bit of an exaggeration, but the point still stood.

With determined eyes, the blade-winged bird screeched toward Lam's Pokémon, Josh's DYNAMAX BAND glowing as it absorbed DYNERGY from the Power Spot above the center of the city...

The heartwarming comment made Josh's smile grow. "Thanks, Lam," he replied. "I'm planning on taking her to the final match with kyle lopez . Have you ever flown on one before? They're excellent at diving. Bladestorm here loves to dive with riders on his back. Pulling out of a dive with one is one of the greatest adrenaline rushes a Pokémon can offer you." Skarmory being feisty was nothing unusual for the species; they were some of the most aggressive birds on the planet.

There would be time to do that later; now, they needed to start the test. Not wasting any time, Josh raised his DYNAMAX BAND toward the sky, red DYNERGY erupting from it. Withdrawn into his Poké Ball temporarily, the sphere grew in size to be almost as large as his trainer's entire upper body. "Ungh!" Josh grunted as he hurled the massive object back toward center court. The metal bird had grown to such a size that he dwarfed Mauville's skyline.

"MAX KNUCKLE!" Josh ordered, Bladestorm falling toward the Corviknight in a motion that mimicked the way he used Body Press. The enormous weight that came from his gigantified frame threatened to crush it if Lam didn't intervene!

Even as a standard Pokémon, Skarmory were capable of withstanding immense physical force. They were some of the few Pokémon that could dive into the ground at full speed, crash, and take right back to the air without injury. That toughness multiplied when Dynamaxed; not even the G-MAX WIND RAGE left much of a scratch on the Pokémon itself. There was a small scratch on the red DYNAMAX BARRIER enveloping it, but the harm the massive move inflicted looked trivial.

"Now, MAX ROCKFALL," the Gym Leader commanded, Bladestorm slamming her bladed wings into the ground to unearth sharp stones of a colossal scale. The resulting stone rain could have felt like a meteor shower to the comparatively tiny Corviknight.

Once the smoke had cleared, Josh took a brief time-out to share his observations. "So Dynamax Pokémon, from what I can see, exchange complete mobility for extreme toughness. Do you have a Pokémon that can also Dynamax, Lam?" he asked, curious to see what would happen when two of them would collide. That, in his eyes, was the purpose of the field test.

That way, he could come up with a worst case scenario in the event of a Dynamax attack on his city.